Person of the Month

Katherine Grey

Guest Article

'Love and Loss: Lady Katherine Grey' by Leanda de Lisle

The wedding of Lady Katherine Grey without Queen Elizabeth I’s consent was the defining act of her life. Katherine, perhaps determined not to be a pawn as her sister had been, gambled everything for love and lost Leanda de Lisle, biographer of the Grey sisters and the Tudor family, has researched every detail of Katherine’s relationship with her husband, the Earl of Hertford, and the political nuances that made the marriage so dangerous to the Crown.

Life Story

Lady Katherine Grey is very little
known compared with her older sister, Lady Jane, yet her life in many ways
encapsulated the problems of the Tudor succession, and the difficulties that
almost everyone of royal blood encountered. First, a pawn in the plans of the
Duke of Northumberland, and then disliked and distrusted by Elizabeth I, she
sought to find happiness in marriage, but suffered imprisonment and separation
from her husband.

Following in the Footsteps

Katherine’s life was lived in the
east and south of England, in the houses of the nobility and gentry in the
country and the grand town houses and palaces of London, including that most
dreaded of fortresses, the Tower of London.

Find out more about Lady Katherine Grey

Book Reviews

Important in the story of
Katherine Grey was the succession crisis of 1553, when her sister, Jane,
briefly held the throne. Coverage of the events around the crisis was
given a new twist by the late Professor Ives. Read our review of his book
here.